Like a true scorer, Jimmer Fredette is many parts of speech

To study Jimmer Fredette and the contributions he has made on the court for his BYU team this magical senior season, or to try and capture his star that is rising like a comet every day, you first need to look at the dictionary to get an understanding for just what Jimmer is. That’s right, the dictionary. Remember that thing with the old hardcover bindings that people used to, dare I say, open with their bare hands?

The word, that personifies him to date, is simple. S C O R E R. It doesn’t sound assuming, but when looking at it in relation to Jimmer, it is pretty complimentary.

According to the dictionary, the word scorer is many things and many parts of speech, just like Jimmer is many things and many parts of speech. Here’s score first, just to get you into the mood. Take your time, because like Jimmer, a score or to score can be many things:

15. Music . a. a written or printed piece of music with all the vocal and instrumental parts arranged on staves, one under the other. b. the music itself. c. the music played as background to or part of a movie, play, or television presentation.

12. A long distance basketball shot taken from a distance nowhere near the basket, from whence a player can barely see the rim, but who despite the long travel time or ridiculous arc necessary to make the shot, still finds itself at the bottom of the net.

17. To Jimmer – To take someone off the dribble into the traffic of much taller players, then have you think you will have your shot blocked, but then somehow you rise up and while all of the taller players are grasping at air, your shot swishes through the net.

–adjective–

18. Jimmer Time – This is the time in the game when you know that you better have a 20-point lead in hand because Jimmer is coming at you. If you cannot make your free throws down the stretch you are in trouble, because Jimmer can and does. In fact, here are his career stats: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=36409

20. Jimmer! The opening phrase of a sentence to get your attention. Along the lines of Wow! and other interjections. For an elementary lesson on interjections from back in my day, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHpJ45_zwM

Those are just the first 21 parts of speech that came to mind. I am sure, very soon, Jimmer will turn himself into an adverb, a dangling participle and maybe even a dipthong, but I will leave that for him to do another day. Remember, he still has another month or more to keep changing his parts of speech. For now, let’s just all enjoy the many things he is to us, the adoring public who watches him, and for me, the fortunate coach who had a chance to work with him when he was a boy.

Eric Medved

8 Responses

I’m loving keeping up with Jimmer, he is an inspiration to all capital region kids. I saw him play 4 years ago and have been following him since. Good luck to Jimmer in the future, he seems to be an all around nice young man, who will be very successful in his future.

Congrats to Jimmer.He is a great role model that my kids look up to.On and off the court.Great work ethic and all.In this area when you score too much people try to peg you as selfish when all you are trying to do is win.

Eric, one of the best entries you have done thus far. The links are great, and the intelligence behind the post is perfect.

#21 – I was talking about him last night with a pro coach and the consensus amongst many in the trade seems to be that, if he finds his way into a “system”, a good club with heavy duty inside presence that runs an inside-out game, it will elevate him beyond what we are even hoping for him.

I sincerely wish him the best of luck, and look forward to what ‘ JimmerFever ‘ will do to raise the level of the basketball around here in the coming years.

Never saw him play until this year but have heard much. Every baketball family,team,league,section,should have one of him to roll model how to live life with and w/out a BB. He is the substance that movoes are made from.My son loves him and has learned much from his limited exposure to him. THANK YOU JIMMER!!!

I hope BYU does well in the tourney and he gets some exposure, however, I have to disagree with point “Jimmer #21”. Guys like Hershey Hawkins, Lionel Simmons, Keith Van Horn, etc……..were all “scorers” in the NCAA with much more athletic ability than Jimmer. They had no NBA careers. I’m sure if he wants to play basketball professionally, he can do so in say Greece, Spain, Austrialia, etc……, however, it’s not going to be in the NBA.

U2: I think those comparisons are fair as people who excelled in college but could not transition to the pro game at the NBA level, but Jimmer is a point guard with decision-making skills, range and a basketball IQ off the charts. If you want to throw names of people who failed in the league who excelled in college who weren’t “big-time athletes”, let’s instead look at guys like Mark Price, Danny Ainge, Scott Skiles, Avery Johnson, Steve Kerr, John Paxson and John Stockton who did. Is there anything those guys could do, that Jimmer couldn’t do with more development? If so, please explain. How does a guy like Jerry Sichting or Jim Paxson stay in the league if Jimmer cannot?

Jimmer is a great player, but he’s not the best to come out of Section 2. If he played in the early part of the 2000’s against the Suburban Council and Big Ten he’d be just another guy like they all were. Jimmer didn’t even win a state title or regional title. At BYU he’s been great, just goes to show how much colleges are missing out on cap city talent.

Note: The Times Union is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members.